Who
I write as Nina.
I love to read both widely and deeply, and this includes how-to, self-help, personal development and personal growth books.
Meeting new people and exploring other cultures via friends, travel, books, movies, music, folklore, food, and language energises me. I speak English, Afrikaans, Spanish and Portuguese, with a smattering of words from various other languages. I have travelled, worked and lived widely in the Americas with homes at different times in Canada, Honduras, Mexico and Colombia. My current home is Cape Town, South Africa and I have also travelled and worked a fair amount in Africa. Europe and Asia have seen considerably less of me and I have never been in Oceania.
Read more about me!
What
This blog is to provide potential readers of how-to, self-help, and personal growth/development books with a balanced review that you can trust, along with access to a community of practice.
Each blog entry follows the same format. First comes my review of what’s good about the book, then my review of what’s lacking in the book.
I also review one of the practices laid out in the book. Sometimes this takes the form of describing the practice, and sometimes it includes my experience of doing the practice myself.
Why
People want to know whether a how-to book is worth their time or not.
Now that we mostly look for reviews online, the positive reviews tend to filter to the top. Well-rounded and critical reviews are difficult to come by.
Bibliophiles also wonder trustworthy reviews are because publishers and booksellers reward some readers for writing them.
Gone are the days of reviews written by a seasoned and trained critic. Now reviewers are often faceless putting their credibility into question.
The look inside options and downloadable samples on e-readers, don’t provide access to the notes and references, vital to knowing whether a how-to book is reliable and credible.
How I Judge a Book: Not By Its Cover!
There are two sets of filters that I use to judge the books reviewed on this blog:
- Where it fits along the personal growth journey
- Overall usefulness
In all the reviews you will find comments related to both these aspects.
A level and star rating is assigned to each book and is found in the right sidebar of each post.